**Investigation Commission**

An Investigation Commission is appointed from the following persons*:
The Commission has the right to expand its membership, summon reports and witnesses, demand the opening of all books, etc.

1 In the very first days of the October Revolution, the bourgeois press conducted a frenzied campaign against Soviet power. The decisive measures undertaken by the Provisional Revolutionary Committee, which on November 8 (October 26) closed a number of bourgeois newspapers—*Rech'*, *Den'*, *Petrogradskii listok*, and others—provoked protests and objections not only from the petty-bourgeois parties (for example, the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries), but also from some members of our party: Yu. Larina, D. Ryazanov (both joined the party shortly before October), V. Nogina, and others.

On November 17 (4), 1917, at a session of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, the question of freedom of the press was discussed (see "Protocols of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee," ed. VTsIK, Moscow, 1918, pp. 23–27; Lenin, Works, vol. XXII, note 15). Larina submitted a proposal for the repeal of the Council of People's Commissars decree of November 10 (October 28) "on the press" (see decree in *Gazeta Vremenного Rabochego i Krest'yanskogo Pravitel'stva* No. 1, October 28, 1917; *Sobranie Uzakonenii i Rasporyadzhenii* No. 1, December 14 (1), 1917). At this session, Lenin delivered a speech in which he declared: "We cannot give the bourgeoisie the opportunity to slander us. We must immediately appoint a commission to investigate the dependence of bourgeois newspapers on the banks" (Works, vol. XXII, p. 44). The document printed here apparently is a resolution which Lenin intended to submit at this session. After familiarizing himself with another draft resolution prepared earlier by the Bolshevik Faction and subsequently adopted by the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, Lenin did not submit his draft to the presidium for a vote.

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**AMENDMENTS TO THE DECREE ON STATE MONOPOLY ON ADVERTISEMENTS**

[Later than November 17 (4) — earlier than November 21 (8), 1917]

**Decree on the Introduction of State Monopoly on Advertisements**

1. The printing for payment of advertisements in periodical publications, as well as in collections and posters, and likewise the placement of advertisements in kiosks, offices, and other such institutions, is declared a monopoly of the state.

2. Such advertisements may be printed only by publications of the Provisional Workers' and Peasants' Government in Petrograd and by publications of the local Soviets of Workers', Soldiers', and Peasants' Deputies. Newspapers lacking this right that print advertisements for payment shall be closed.

3. Owners of newspapers, offices for the placement of advertisements, as well as all employees in offices, expeditions, and any enterprises of this kind are obligated to remain at their work until such time as it is handed over to the state in the person of the aforementioned bodies, answering for complete order in it, for the observance of continuity in the operation of the enterprise, and for the transfer to the publications of the Soviets of all private advertisements as well as all sums of money received for accepted advertisements, and likewise for complete accounting with attached documents.

4. All heads of publications and enterprises that place advertisements for payment, as well as all employees and workers of these enterprises, are obliged immediately to assemble in city assemblies and unite first in city unions, and then in an All-Russian union for more successful and proper organization of the work, the receipt and placement in Soviet publications of private advertisements, as well as for the development of rules more convenient for the population for the receipt and printing of these advertisements.

5. Those guilty of concealing documents or sums, as well as of [negligence in the execution of] sabotage of the measures indicated in §§ 3 and 4 are punished [by a fine of up to 5,000 rubles, are punished] by confiscation of all property and imprisonment of up to 3 years.

6. Paid placement of advertisements in private publications, in the form of reports, advertising articles [and similar] or other disguised forms [is punished by a fine of up to 10,000 rubles, entails] the same punishment.

[7. The maintenance of employees and workers of the aforementioned enterprises until their transfer to the state is carried out from the sums [subject to transfer] of those enterprises in which these employees and workers are employed.

[8.] 7. Enterprises as a whole or in part may be confiscated] upon the receipt and transfer of advertisements [are confiscated] by the state, with payment if necessary of temporary state assistance to the owners [etc.]. (Such assistance is obligatorily issued in the amount established by the Soviet. To small proprietors, depositors and shareholders of the confiscated enterprises [their] deposits are returned in full.

[9.] 8. All [existing] publications, offices, expeditions, and in general enterprises that place paid advertisements, are obliged [not later than 7 days from the date of the entry into force of this decree] immediately